SAINT JOHN, N.B. -- Thousands of people remained without power in Atlantic Canada following heavy wind and rains over the weekend.

NB Power says about 23,000 customers were in the dark this morning after a fierce wind storm knocked down wires and broke poles.

It says about 200 crews have been deployed throughout the province to assess the damage and restore power as quickly as possible, while another 30 crews from neighbouring utilities were also helping out.

Nova Scotia Power says about 20 outages were affecting more than 670 customers.

New Brunswick bore the brunt of the storm Saturday and into Sunday, with NB Power initially reporting more than 94,000 customers in the dark after 100 kilometre per hour winds struck the province.

Some schools in New Brunswick remained closed due to the outages, while there were scattered outages in P.E.I.